How to Prolong Usage Time on a Laptop

There are a number of things you can do to get the most usage time out of your laptop’s battery. Here are suggestions for prolonging the laptop’s battery life:

Turn down the laptop monitor’s brightness level when it is using battery power. Some laptops do this automatically, as part of the power management system.

Create a power plan that spins down the laptop’s hard drive after a few minutes of use.

Avoid using the optical (CD/DVD) drive while on battery power. The battery drains faster when you’re watching a movie on your laptop than it does when just accessing a little data, but the optical drive pulls power either way.

Mute the speakers.

Avoid accessing the network while on battery power.

Disable the wireless networking adapter to save battery power.

Try to use the laptop’s dialup modem only when the laptop is connected to a power source. Modems drain battery power, and usually when you’re near a phone jack, you can find a wall socket nearby. Use it.

The manufacturer’s battery usage statistics are calculated under ideal circumstances. Though your laptop manufacturer may boast that the battery lasts for a full three hours, you should expect less time.